Teaching can be an incredibly rewarding career, with so many opportunities and job security. While the pay disputes have been a big debate in the news recently, there have been some breakthroughs in pay increases. But before you even think about applying for anything you should do your research and make sure teaching is the right choice for you.
In my experience, applying for post-graduate teacher training has been simple and exciting. The summer following my second year as an undergrad, I started my application for a PGCE in Primary Education.
This is done through the government website Get Into Teaching. Starting your application can seem intimidating as there is a lot to do, but that is why you are provided with a free advisor, who will regularly phone and email to check how your application is going. The advisor is particularly helpful when you are writing your personal statement, which is one of the main parts of your teaching application.
The personal statement is your time to highlight your skills and experiences, and why you want to be a teacher. It is one of the key things your training provider will look at when considering your application.
THE PERSONAL STATEMENT
The teaching application requires a personal statement of 1,000 words.
The first section is the biggest and should roughly contain around 600 words. In this part, you should discuss why you want to be a teacher. What are your motivations to teach? What are your transferable skills that can be useful for teaching? Why do you want to teach that particular subject, or in my case, why primary? Do you have any work experience that could be relevant for teaching?
The second section asks for what you know about the subject or age range that you want to teach. This is only 400 words so you need to be concise. Training providers are looking for you to have some knowledge about the national curriculum, identify topics that interest you and admit to any areas you may be flawed in but willing to work on.
Demonstrate how your undergrad or other qualifications will benefit you as a teacher and how it can link to parts of the curriculum. If you have any experience in teaching or working in a school it is great to discuss this as well, noting the kind of teaching methods you observed, and how teachers managed behaviour – showing your observation skills will benefit you in your application!
You can also gain some good points by naming details from the Teacher’s Standards. All of these details add together to demonstrate to training providers that you are dedicated and serious about teaching.
THE INTERVIEW
The second stage of the teaching application is the interview. These can be done either in-person or online depending on the training provider. The interviewer will review the information provided in your application, and will ask questions about why you want to teach but also why them, why that course?
BY CHLOE BAYLISS – LIFESTYLE FEATURES EDITOR
